SPORTSHOUND: 20 and Counting

Tales from the Timebox for January 30, 2024

The Edmonton Oiler bandwagon is rolling into the all-star break with a 16 game winning streak. Here in Elk Point, the U15 Avalanche team has a fantastic streak of their own going. Undefeated on the season, leading the league with 18 wins and 3 ties. This past Saturday at home at the A.G. Ross Arena, they added another notch to their sticks, winning over Lac La Biche. Brendan ‘Buzz Saw’ Kadutski cut a path to the goal with a hat trick and one apple. Remington ‘ Steel’ Reynolds with two goals and three assists. ‘Without a Trace’ Morgan with a goal and three helpers. Liam ‘Sledgehammer’ Swedgen with a goal. Defenseman ‘Wild Wyatt’ Fontaine with three assists. Braylee ‘Free Willy’ Lesyk, ‘Boe Dog’ St. George, and Tristan ‘Bobcat’ Brousseau are all on the game sheet with assists. 

What’s going on at the Arena? That was the question of the day on Saturday from the townspeople who happened to drive by. The A.G. Ross parking lot was overflowing and cars and trucks were up and down both sides of the street in front.  Why? Because every mom and dad, grandparents, aunts and uncles come to watch their little stars in their very first hockey tournament, of course.

U7 Avalanche

 The U7 Avalanche hosted a  six team tournament.  Two teams from Bonnyville, two teams from St Paul, Vermilion, and our home team, the Avalanche. Hats off to the tournament coordinators, coaches, and the parents of the Avalanche for hosting such a great tournament. The raffle table was packed with goodies, including a looney stick.  The concession was busy all day. And they even had a puck toss.  

‘Hard Knox’ Mudryk with the MVP in the first game. Rosaleigh ‘Rosie’ Nepoose-Gadwa winning the Heart and Hustle. In the second game Aksel ‘Lightning’ Aarbo with the MVP, Jaxtyn ‘Jackhammer’ Krankowski with the Heart and Hustle. Hard Knox, Rosie, and Lightning, with a handful of goals and assists each. Jackhammer was doing a terrific job of holding down the fort and keeping the puck out when it was his turn in the net. The determined ‘Mighty Casey’ Cayson Younghans and William ‘Too Tall’ Farrell each with a goal and some assists.  Axton ‘Ace’ MacKinnon came very close to scoring his first.  First year players ‘Motley Krew’ Mudryk, Ryker ‘Mini-Moose’ Ockerman Eli ‘Easy Money’ Botstein, Busy ‘Bumblebee’ Bowman and Gunnar ‘the Roadrunner’ Kelly all showing improvement in skating and stickhandling. New players coming over from the First Shift program, Rylan Allen, J Chen, Dayko Jung, Sunwoo Jung, Winston Ung, Rylan Allen, and Aspyn Pallwoda, all showed great potential.

U13 Avalanche

The U13 Avalanche have been playing exceptionally well lately and have a six game winning streak going after winning two games at home this past weekend. On Friday night, they defeated the top team in the league, the Irma Aces, by a score of 6 to 3. Great goaltending by Theo ‘Long Horn’ Loughran -Quinney who was bombarded with 47 shots. Team captain William ‘Billy Bob’ Ballas with a hat trick and two assists. Ryder ‘Rhino’ Malo with a goal and an assist. Hudson ‘the Bull’ Brousseau and Jaxon ‘Magic’ Marcoux also with a goal each. Hunter ‘Hardrock’ Pankiw, ‘Fearless Frank’ Killiam, Jesse James Penner, Ethan ‘The Big E’ Lorenson, and Brody ‘the Thrasher’ Trach are all on the game sheets with assists. Although his name is not on the game sheet with goals or assists, he is still an important part of the team’s recent success, grinding away in the trenches and getting no glory,  defenseman Lennox ‘All Out’ St Arnault stopping the big guns from the Aces in their tracks before they can get a shot on net. 

On Sunday, the U13s defeated the all-female U13 team from Lloydminster 8 to 4. Even though the score may not show it, the boys had their hands full in this one as the females would not go down easily, fighting right to the bitter end of the game. Goaltender ‘Major Tom’ Melnyk, between the pipes in this one, came up huge with some sensational saves, especially late in the game. He even took a hard one off his mask. The Bull seeing red was fired up, he lit up the red lamp with four goals and also assisted on one. Nice stickwork by the slick team captain, Billy Bob, who scored two and set up two others. The speedy Magic racing down the wing with the puck set up three goals. Centerman Jesse James set up two goals and did an awesome job of forechecking. Defenseman  Thrasher with a wicked slapshot scoring one from the point and adding a helper on one.  

U11 Avalanche

The U11 Avalanche team has had some lopsided games this year sometimes winning by 8 to 10 goals. Nice to win and pad the stats, but you will learn more in a closer match up like this past Sunday. They played the St. Paul Canadiens in our barn losing this one 6 to 4. The whole team had to work harder on this one. Jase ‘the Jackal’ Malo with two goals. Stetson ‘Shack’ Reynolds with a goal and an assist. Mikey ‘the Beast’ L’Heureux also scored. Kael Large, ‘Dax My Boy’ Bowman and Rylan ‘Freight Train’ Kryzanowski with assists. 

U9 Avalanche

Our U9 Avalanche team has graduated from playing on half ice to full ice for the second half of the season. This past weekend, they traveled to Mannville to play in a two-day tournament there. This is a league initiative so players can learn about offsides and icing before moving on to the U 11 team next year. I bet these guys were tired Sunday night after having to skate the full length of the arena !